This is not an open letter to President Obama

by neo

Because if it were, Mr. President, you’d already be reading a snarky comment about how the best way for India to get more respect from the U.S. is to either become a radical Islamic country that threatens American lives, or a communist oligarchy that threatens the American economy. We’d have such a compelling start to our open letter, you’d never guess our real problem: we don’t really want your respect, we want our respect.

Just as homophobia is a cover for latent homosexuality and religious piety for latent immorality, our shrill demands for respect are actually overcompensation for our own self-loathing. Maybe the U.N. security council permanent membership will help raise our self-esteem. Or maybe our problems are intractable. Maybe what makes India India is what makes India India. But it would be nice if we could, for once, be India.

You’d probably see right through our non-sequiturs, but Indian nationalists and right-wingers would retweet, like, digg, buzz and salivate at our open letter. They would never realize that every time they gaudily thump their patriotic chests, they betray their deepest fear: the fear that they do not respect India. Unfortunately for them, self-respect cannot be demanded; it must also be earned. But that is a discussion between them and their therapists.

We wouldn’t want to waste your time though, so we’d quickly move on to our next point: the U.S.—especially under a black president like you—should do more to curb racist attacks against Indian expatriates. We’d highlight only the cases where we need your help, i.e. against the white man, because we don’t need help in dealing with negroes, yellows, pakis and darker-skinned fellow Indians.

Somewhere in the middle of the open letter we’d compliment your use of Indian expressions such as “Jai Hind” during your speech to the Indian parliament, while hinting that dropping a Hindi phrase or two doesn’t alleviate our respect-anxiety. We wouldn’t bring up the fact that the English language and American culture are annihilating Indian traditions, because that—much like the American voter, apparently—is beyond your control. If Indian languages are being supplanted by English, it is because selfish Indian parents value the economic prosperity, global compatibility and future prospects of their children more than their duty to preserve Indian languages.

But Mr. President, the situation has become so bad that an English-language Indian author, best known for his award-winning open letter to the Chinese premiere, was forced to write an entire column lamenting the fact that, like the white tiger, the Kannada language is becoming extinct. You can read more about it on his Kannada blog titled, “Error 404. This blog does not exist.”

[It’s not all bad news, though. Cultural preservation is a numbers game, so for now we are using Indian taxpayer money to teach large numbers of poor kids in local Indian languages. The poor “verni” rascals will probably forever be at a disadvantage versus their rich, English-educated fellow citizens who will go on to become globe-trotting NRIs, but hey, someone has to preserve our languages. Also, how else would award-winning Indian authors get that warm, “awww this reminds me of my grandmother’s cooking” muse-y feeling when they visit India every six years (or whenever Singapore Airlines is running a special deal)?]

And finally, no open letter (and no U.S. President’s speech in India) would be complete without a reference to Gandhi. Just like your speechwriters, we’d have to search Wikipedia for an insightful thing to say about Gandhi; we barely remember the Gandhian philosophies they tried to drill into us at school. Thankfully most of us quickly recovered, or we’d never be able to succeed in corporate India, board a local train, watch TV, or use Microsoft Word. Those of us who didn’t recover spend their lives requesting their panchayat to grant them additional water rations. In perfect Kannada, of course.

We’d probably end with an obviously ironic line such as “Respectfully yours”. Or maybe we’d make a quip about about the United Nations being the best representative of our planet’s disunity. And we’d probably need an unexpected postscript too, where we saved the best for the last. You’d never guess that we chickened out from the hardest part of the open letter—where we define who “we” are. The truth is, there’s no “we” any more. Perhaps that’s what makes India India.

58 Responses to “This is not an open letter to President Obama”

Beats me why we such little self respect. Forget Obama, the press is now pouring out their affection for Pamela Anderson! I’m pretty sure some dumb fuck India Today or Aaj Tak reporter is gonna ask her “What do you think about Indians?”

[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Neo, Ankit Agarwal, survesh dhir, abhishekshirali, Arif Attar and others. Arif Attar said: RT @fakebalthakre: Well said. RT @neo_indian: New post: This is not an open letter to President Obama http://bit.ly/cbkTSx […]

Indian languages are not being supplanted by English. Since the birth of India, south Indians have spoke English + local language. Now it is English + Hindi.

SO local languages are being supplanted by Hindi through our centralized/socialist school syllabi. When middle-class people learn Hindi it allows people from UP/Bihar into their state, since language is no longer a barrier. These migrants tend to vote against local parties i.e. pro-Congress. Thus Congress is able to subvert the democracy in hostile states this way. Does this mean the cow-belt will ever be developed? NO, everyone with a brain will migrate and there is no sustained generational, local involvement towards betterment in those regions because of nomadic populations. So you’ll have highly localized regions of prosperity which is very bad since overcrowding and pollution quickly overwhelm growth.

People of Karnataka have a far better acceptance of English than the cow-belters. Ironic that they’re now being beaten up for being “selfish” (in their ancestral home) or not “indian enough” when the average northie migrant has no interest in anything other than Hindi and bringing over their relatives. It’s not a sustainable model of development since population growth in UP/Bihar is +5 compared to +2 in the south. So how will this be reduced? Only by development of UP/Bihar etc! But that requires reasonably educated people, teachers, doctors, a pool of engineers etc. staying in their home state. But that means that UP/Karnataka/TN/Bengali people should take pride in their home state culture, not just as “Indians”! The term “proud to be indian” often translates to apathy or “someone else will take care of it” and associating with “indians” who are in your class. “Proud to be Tamil” at least means you’ll work for all of Tamil Nadu, irrespective of class. Do you see the wider implications here?

Local language and culture have always been bulwarks against Communism/Socialism and subverting the rights of the native population. Try reading about the widespread misgivings among the Europeans for the European Union you’ll see many of the same issues/dangers crop up. Smashing up local identity is part of the power consolidation for the political elite. Why do you think the purge of religion and culture is part of totalitarian philosophies like Communism?

By “Communism/Socialism” I don’t mean the CPI/CP(M). I mean the centralization of power USSR style (which is what Nehruvian socialism is about). This is based on the idea that people can’t be trusted to take of their own environment and a central authority needs to be in control to redistribute inequality.

One way to peddle this notion is by erasing local identity because it then becomes easy for citizens to accept poor progress that is self-evident in their own immediate environment, and derive comfort from the fact that some other group of “Indians” are racing ahead. Proud Tamils won’t stand for a poor Tamil Nadu nor proud Mumbaikars for a poor Mumbai, but proud “indians” will stand for a poor UP/Bihar/Kerala etc. if they hear of progress elsewhere (often this is achieved through pure Statist propaganda as in China/USSR).

Instead what we need is competition between the states for economic growth, which has to be rooted in “state pride”. It’s easy to laugh this off as chauvinism when it comes from a Thackeray type, but a deeper examination of the issues, say from a Shobaa De or Aravind Adiga, prompts a doom & gloom “curse our culture” type response as this Neo piece is.

Loss of regional heritage (due to forcing study of Hindi due to need for socialist control from 1st paragraph) is evident to everyone so the question is who do we blame? English is a convenient scapegoat for politicians because there is no electorate that defines itself as “English”, the bollywood types who control our media are in on it since less English/local language = more Hindi = more revenue.

I would argue that the ability of communism to separate religion from language is what makes the Chinese better than India at executing tasks single handedly. It is incorrect to say that because we have socialistic policies we are loosing our local culture. China is a split of many cultures and languages, all that remain intact despite 50 odd years of communism. Malaysia has a large Indian population educated in tamil, despite the fact that the national language of the country is NOT tamil. What communism does, is binds citizens of different types of living together to function as a wholesome society. TO allow USSR- Stalin styled communism to define it, is incorrect and to use a rotten apple as an example of an apple.

There are many reasons why we loose our language. You could say mixed marriages are a reason, so would economic reasons to learn English). Similarly, there are many reasons why we choose our language too: for politics, for law, to know our heritage….

Socialist policies are the result of an centralized intrusive managerial style government. Culture/Linguistic diversity is inimical to centralized management (a person speaking Kannada doesn’t want to be ruled by a Hindi speaker from Delhi, he wants a local Kannada person who understands his problems and isn’t shielded by N-layers of bureaucracy) and therefore local identity must go. Soviets aggressively pushed Russian in all their states, and the Chinese outlawed everything except Mandarin.

When you say that the states need to compete amongst each other, I wholeheartedly agree. I also agree with the fact that states as underdevelopment of states as large as UP and Bihar will have serious consequences, for the Nation . The English/Hindi media point fingers at Thackeray’s and scream their lungs out, they never focus on Laloo, Mulayam and Mayawati for the mess they have created.

But I don’t agree with the forcing to study Hindi bit. Hindi, is just another Indian Language, like Marathi,Tamil or Bengali. It has been adopted as one of the official languages, so the Central Schools will teach it.

” Proud Tamils won’t stand for a poor Tamil Nadu nor proud Mumbaikars for a poor Mumbai, but proud “indians” will stand for a poor UP/Bihar/Kerala etc. if they hear of progress elsewhere ” . But this thinking is wrong . Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra are parts of India . The BIMARU states are a reason to be ashamed of, not just for the people of that state, but of the entire country. If we start thinking like this, then will we ever cheer a Sachin or Saina, if we do no hail from Mahrashtra or Harayana ?

UP won’t improve unless people actually live there & work towards it. Mr. Muthuswami Iyer isn’t going to migrate to BIMARU with his kin no matter how “ashamed” he is as an Indian.

Being proud of your regional culture not only improves your region but acts as a check towards migratory pressure in your direction. We are socially at a stage where if one can earn Rs. 10k more in Bangalore we will migrate there, this will only accelerate the divide. So being a proud Tamil etc. is very much patriotic.

And Sachin/Sania are you kidding me? We celebrate achievements of 3rd gen Brits/Yanks of Indian heritage! You need to stop believing in socialist scare tactics about how we’ll fall apart unless forced together. In fact it’s socialist forcing together which causes the resentment.

How is what I said “flawed logic”? It is not ignoble to want to be self-ruled. “No taxation without representation” – look it up.

Just to clarify. I’m not saying we should “push Kannada”. Rather we should stop pushing Hindi by a) giving it undue priority in our school syllabus and b) establishing Bollywood as Indian culture. Hindi is culturally an alien language everywhere except the cow belt and has no commercial value for the future.

What is happening right now is erasing of local culture (by Hindi) and channeling the ensuing resentment felt by locals towards English! It’s a socialist ploy that kills two birds (English, Kannada) with one stone (Hindi). This sleight of hand is helped by people such as yourself (Neo), because you interpret any assertion of Kannada/Marathi etc. as anti-English.

1. We need to have a common language that should bind us all together as a nation. To process a simple document. Yes, we can sit and debate about why Hindi was chosen above all the other languages but we come from a generation where it was already chosen. So what we can do is simply study it and use it for easier communication.

2. Language doesn’t design attitude and I dare say, language is not static. The purpose of language is to communicate, and well, proud Tamils and what ever elses can learn their culture. Parents can enforce the pride in their children at a grassroots level. Send them to extra classes, make the effort to enforce it and it will work. Millions of Tamil people around the world have some form of their heritage intact despite globalisation.

3. Culture is not stagnant, it moves, morphs and changes. This is part of life, we have to live with the times. I am tamil, Bangalorean.. I’ve been out of the country for 14 years to return and I’ve learnt Kannada. I can’t read it, I find it silly that bus numbers are written in Kannada, I would rather they be written in English and in Kannada. That way the local heritage is protected, but tourists/businessmen and who so ever else, can be a part of this city.

4. And on China, “A second language reform required the simplification of ideographs because ideographs with fewer strokes are easier to learn. In 1964 the Committee for Reforming the Chinese Written Language released an official list of 2,238 simplified characters most basic to the language. Simplification made literacy easier, although people taught only in simplified characters were cut off from the wealth of Chinese literature written in traditional characters. Any idea of replacing ideographic script with romanized script was soon abandoned, however by government and education leaders.”

You see, some times to become progressive we change our ways and adapt. That’s culture and language, tools for progression. And yea, sure, we can also protect it, but we can’t be phobic to the idea of adopting a pluralistic approach to our lives. Or yes we can but live like ostriches.

It’s only “evolution” when the change is with participation of and benefits at each stage the current local population. We can be ostriches and pretend that what is happening isn’t deliberate destruction, in accordance with the centralist i.e. socialist/communist ideology of the congressites and corporatists which stand to profit from it.

We can choose to take pride in our local cuisine which is sourced from sustainable local produce. And take pride in our local literature & entertainment forms which come from our local language. And we draw comfort from our religion housed in our local places of worship.

or we can be “progressive/secular”. Then we can eat from MacDonalds (with special anti-moisture potatoes flown in from Australia), watch Bollywood (who only employ those in Mumbai), and take Prozac to soothe our atheistic souls.

In the former the local population has a competitive advantage thanks to the adherence to local culture, thus providing employment for the Many across generations. In the latter we merely slave for and enrich the Few.

Satish..youhave a very very biased opinion! I a post
earlier,u said people from UP Bihar come to Tamil Nadu and vote
against local parties.. Don’t you think if someone has migrated and
has stayed in a place for years, he to is a ‘local resident’ of
that place/state. I am living in Chennai from past 5 years, you
mean to say the problems I face in chennai are not mine. Every one
has right to vote for the person (or party) who he thinks can solve
his/her problems. As far as Hindi is concerned, it evolved with the
intermingling of lot of north indian langauages and hence is spoken
by the largest fraction of population. It grew because it was
flexible enough to accomodate words from other indian languages.
Similarly, indian culture is a collection of custums of all walks
of the society accross all regions. Tis is why though people
(especially political parties) in Tamil Nadu and Maharastra worship
Rama and Sita and celebrate Deepawali, though they hate people from
UP-Bihar. Tamil on the other hand restricted itself on ‘prevention
of our culture’ stand and could not accomodate other languages. A
solitary confinement I would say. Govt. here in TN force Tamil with
‘reservations in jobs’ and other popular agenda, while hindi is an
optional subject. How can you then say Hindi is being forced.
Woudn’t it be good to give both languages an equal chance and see
what people want to learn. Now this one is specially for
politicians… Their sole existance comes from THE CONSTITUTION OF
INDIA. According to it, a person can win an election if he/ she has
a ‘simple’ majority. i .e a person who gets 51% votes will be an
elected candidate though 49% don’t want him. Sathish my friend, by
simple logic, Hindi is way ahead of 51% and Tamil way below 49% in
terms of speakers, if there is ever an election to choose one
language of India

Neo, Thought the writeup was ok..did *not* appreciate the comment about Kannada. You are in Bangalore, remember that..you wouldn’t want KRV coming knocking on your doors(http://www.karnatakarakshanavedike.org/)…FYI..this website will not give you a 404 not found error. You can do better with writeups, Neo..but then again, I know better than to ever take you seriously:)

You brought up a good point, Neo. And my unequivocal answer to that is “absolutely not”. In my defending of Kannada, I may come across as a “KRV” type to you. I do not believe in imposing anything on anyone..live and let live..that’s my policy.

With your own experience of having lived in Bangalore for this long, wouldn’t you say you’ve had to learn almost no kannada? Doesn’t that go to say that something about its people..and how they are accepting of anybody from anywhere? Can you live in Chennai without knowing one word of Tamil? Can you live in Delhi without knowing one word of Hindi?

My pet peeve is when someone who isn’t originally from Bangalore mocks Kannada and mocks the fact that it is so unimportant. I’ve also heard comments such as “we never see many locals here..where do they go?”. You’ve lived in the bay area, how may people did you meet that were born and raised in the bay area? Any metropolitan city, be it Bangalore or San Jose..they are melting pots..people come from everywhere just because of a strong economy and a promising future..You(or any reader of this blog..or any person for that matter) don’t have to learn my language, but you don’t have to disrespect it either..that’s my point.

I was in line at a supermarket the other day in Bangalore, this guy ahead of me was pissed the people at the store weren’t responding to him in Hindi. They were trying to accommodate him and speaking to him in English. The point to be noted here..they were *not* trying to talk to him in Kannada. I spoke to him and gave him a reality check..I told him people here speak Kannada or English..and he gave me his shpeal of Hindi being the national language. Tough luck, buddy..was all I could say to him!

Thanks for your comment, and I think I’m closer to understanding what you meant.

Where we disagree is that I’m not sure a language, by itself, is something for which the feeling of “respect” makes any sense. It’s sort of like saying, “have some respect for tandoori-style cooking.”

As for *speakers* of a given language, I feel no additional or less respect for anyone solely based on what language they speak.

What I do have a problem with is the Government using taxpayer money to teach poor children in a language which will put them at a huge disadvantage, when what they need, in fact, is an accelerated English education program so they can compete with the rich, English-speaking guys on an equal footing when it comes to high-paying jobs.

I agree that taxpayer money needs to be used to educate the poor in a manner that exposes them to the same opportunities that are available to the rich. Do other states have better policies on this? Just curious. Looks like this thread is keeping you up at night! LOL:)

Hindi is not “the national language” of India. This whole notion was fabricated by the hegemonistic Bollywood media, using their jingoistic movies (which make fun of non-Hindi speakers), to promote their own Hindi product. You’d have to be either an intellectual coward or a dullard to think that we had voted for this at any election.

Good on you for taking a very un-PC stance. Although I’m not from Karnataka, I think they’re the sweetest people who’ve always been tolerant to everyone – Malayalees, Tamils, Konkani, Kodava etc. You are not alone either, people from North East, Kashmir, Maharashtra are always being portrayed as anti-Indian, by the Bollywood media, for speaking up.

Blaming culture for failed socio-economic policy is a standard trick of the socialists.
Corruption/poor ROI? Socialist: Well Indians are morally bankrupt. Real reason: Centralization.
Casteism alive? Socialist: Well Indian culture is just evil. Real reason: 60+ years of maintaining caste identity with handouts.
Poor efficiency in factories? Socialist: Well Indians are not as hardworking as the Chinese. Real reason: Labour laws used by special interests to hold industry to ransom and depress wages.

And so on… This “we don’t communicate internally well enough” is hilarious in its sheer nebulousness. What are they saying? That the PM writes in Punjabi, Raja understands something else in Tamil and the IAS officer is barking Hindi to the Kannada workers digging a borewell. And THIS is why we can’t get irrigation LOL?

I think people make far too much of a fuss about languages. Languages are meant for one thing, and one thing only – Communication. As long as it satisfies that need, it doesn’t matter if it is English,Kannada,Hindi,Tamil or even sign language.
It doesn’t require an IQ of 160 to figure out that a country with one language can communicate internally better than one with 22. Look at Zambia, it has 72 languages. Really? That’s something to be proud of? I can speak English,Kannada,Hindi,Malayalam,Konkani and understand Tamil and Telugu. I had to learn them to communicate with those in my neighbourhood. Isn’t it a pure waste of time and effort to learn bits of a million languages to achieve basic communication instead of learning one language, learning it well and being done with it?

It doesn’t take a high IQ to figure out that a country with one religion “communicates internally better” than with many religions.

Ergo let’s convert everyone to Hinduism. Those who don’t like it can leave or face the mob.

Heck it doesn’t take high IQ to figure out than a racially homogenous country “communicates internally better” than with many races.

Let’s get rid of or breed out all the untermensch like the Chinese did to the Tibetans and Uighyurs. We can then be one Aryan race with one mastered language and one religion with total allegiance to the State!

or…

we can understand what it means to be an Indian by respecting our diversity and our rights to speak what language we choose, what God(s) to follow and who we marry with. We can also realize that our progress as a nation depends on our economic policies and the love we have for each other rather committing cultural/linguistic/religious hari-kiri a la China and the USSR as a prerequisite.

When the states were to be divided on linguistic basis, Bangalore contontment and Trivandram came under Tamil speaking. But Tamilnadu conceded Bangalore and Trivandrum for the unity of the nation. Just google for Pre partition linguistic map of India and see for yourself dear.

I am trying to decipher what your point is. I think you are saying that part of Bangalore did not belong to Karnataka originally and so there is no need for kannadigas to be “patriotic” about Bangalore.

My response to Satish’s comment was that I agreed with his last paragraph that everyone needs to be able to live with each other regardless of what they speak or what religion they follow. Which is not at all the state of affairs right now, hence my comment about unity in diversity. And you may disagree with me. but I firmly believe that Bangalore is one of the most accepting places on the planet. Try moving to another city in India and you’ll find out.

Be practical, if South Indians keep imbibing Hindi then no one will bother with conversational English since any north Indian in their midst either knows only Hindi or has some emotional attachment to it (mother tongue). For starters, are they going to discuss their only entertainment – i.e. Hindi-based in English? Test this theory out with mixed speakers and you’ll see what they regress to. You will then have an accelerating decline in English standards.

Don’t fall for the false choice “English vs Local culture” bollywood media CON – in previous generations how many South Indians spoke Hindi but not English? The decline CANNOT be because spread of English, but of Hindi.

The cultural hari-kiri of Socialism/Communism is not for “kicks”. It is a first step in remaking the citizen in the mould of the State sanctioned religion (veneration of figures like Nehru, Gandhi family, Mao, Stalin etc.) and language (Mandarin, Russian, Hindi). This language cannot be a foreign one, for that would undermine the synonymization of cultural loyalty and Party loyalty.

This does not sound like the Neo who wrote a year or so ago that he insisted the Neo family speak English at home, so that Neo Jr. would have better opportunities later on….but then, I’m that white guy he seems concerned about!

Leftist atheists like Karunandhi and his ilk who insist on children of Tamil Nadu go to Tamil medium schools and forced Tamil down my throat when I preferred learning Hindi. I now could had the luxury of watching Bollygood movies without the subs. Oh well!

It’s like reading my own thoughts neatly expressed. Our inferiority complex, our confused ideas of ‘my nation/state/language/’ v/s everybody else’s is going to take a long time to change with some of us so loving the ‘“awww this reminds me of my grandmother’s cooking” muse-y feeling when they visit India every six years”.

While I understand the lament that we’re out of touch with our culture, and that it is due to people pursuing primarily commercial gains; what I do not agree with is:
– Stating that Obama’s Gandhi reference is just lip service. That Gandhi is an inspirational figure to him (& many homegrown Indians like me too! I haven’t fogotten what I read either in school or outside.) is common knowledge.

Also, I am a little bored of the cultural lament. Culture, Language etc. evolve. In fact they survive by evolution. Change or perish applies here as well.

Our culture has been different through the millennia. We shouldn’t be too worried about the changes that will undoubtedly happen to it.

“What I do have a problem with is the Government using taxpayer money to teach poor children in a language which will put them at a huge disadvantage, when what they need, in fact, is an accelerated English education program so they can compete with the rich, English-speaking guys on an equal footing when it comes to high-paying jobs.”

I had this teenager working for me in Pune, Maharashtra – she had been taken out of school, in class ten, she said, because her father married another woman. She wanted to continue going to school and she was smart and I am sure she would have done well, but she knew only Kannada, no Hindi or Marathi.

In the end, I simply taught her how to write and read in Hindi and English at home.

this was one of the best posts on the underlying issues affecting the Indian polity – with a dash of your signature wit :) loved it! and you hit the nail on the head when you wrote “We’d have such a compelling start to our open letter, you’d never guess our real problem: we don’t really want your respect, we want our respect…. our shrill demands for respect are actually overcompensation for our own self-loathing.”

Sigh, I really miss your funny blogs, that were fun to read!
In this blog, you attempt to cover so many serious topics which parents and GPs are still vigorously debating and have spent the last ‘n’ decades discussing…..it is boring enough to hear it from them :(
Sorry, Neo, while all these are certainly (er, maybe?) worth discussing, I really miss the “old” Neo blogs.

I write what comes to me naturally, and so my posts are a reflection of my mood. Lately I guess I’ve been in a somewhat darker mood, and I’d rather write something that feels true to my feelings at the time, than to try to conform to a set “genre” of expectations..

I wouldn’t bother get your knickers in a knot about an indian identity, and “who you are” as a nation. Australia has exactly the same problem -always wondering and worrying about how we are perceived in the world, wanting a seat on the security council, trying to define our ‘identity’. Waste of energy. India, from the outside, is clearly identifiable – never mind your own insecurity I am pretty sure every nation has that!.
For me at least, India’s identity is wound up in a spinning, dancing rich amalgam of colour, tradition and culture, slowly moving forward, gathering speed and taking all the history, techno savvy diversity and intellectual tradition slowly into the next century. It’s certainly not a place to be described in one word! Ands you know what from where I stand you are in pretty good shape.
The pervasive nature of american culture is something the entire world contends with, and how not to lose culture and tradition… that I can’t tell you, but is definately something we all wish to know!! Your traditions are hundreds of years old – ours are barely formed, compared to India, Australia is a blank slate!

I loved the post. But the comments and the arguments were more interesting. It is funny how we deviate from the basic point, focus on something else totally and make a huge deal out of it.
My two pence – Of course language is important and Bangalore is a cosmopolitan city. Does it have much culture? I don’t think so. I’m a Kannadiga and I grew up in Bangalore, in the heart of the cultural wonderland it was then. Ironically, it is that extreme stress on “let kannada rule” that has killed the culture and the easy going atmosphere where everyone could have their say.
Kannada is a beautiful language… but you cannot force people to watch bad kannada movies, read cheap kannada novels or learn the language simply because they have read the places names on the buses!

I agree that you can’t(and shouldn’t) force a language(or associated media of any type) upon someone. But I disagree that there is extreme stress on “let kannada rule”. I believe its more along the lines of “let kannada stay”! There was no need for this in the easy going atmosphere that then existed…

What I find really disquieting is the fact that We allow Obama to come here and make his florid speeches about Terror and all that shit and applaud the fact that he has ‘reprmianded’ Pakistan. Two weeks before landing here the US pledged US$ 2 billion military aid to Pakistan , whose Army general hasn’t shied from branding us the biggest threat to their interests. So I really don’t think the funds are going to be used constructively, though I ob can’t substantiate that.

It’s obvious we love Obama and we love showing love getting even the remotest attention from him or his country. So much so that we let him undermine our interests while getting assuaged by his smooth tongued rhetoric. Your post has shown what the US has been exploiting for so many years :) Our desire for attention, this need to be acknowledged, that mini-orgasm when some higher up in the US adminstration praises Tandoori roti cooked by a 4th generation Indian American, or when the US President calls us an ‘emerging’ superpower ;). As long as the US president comes to India, eats a wada pav, dances with a few street kids, and praises our stellar GDP growth, we’ll allow him to screw us.

The US obviously feels it can continue undermining Indian interests without a whimper of protest from us as long as it sends it President for our collective biennial orgasms. And I can’t blame them, who wouldn’t look out for their own interests.

You know, you’re really lucky I saw this after Obama left or I’d have you arrested by Barkha Dutt and Arnab Goswami for being a CIA operative ;). You just told everyone what I didn’t want others to know about us. LOL., just kidding.

@Satish: I’m gob-smacked by your observations. It’s good to
be a local-culture evangelist, but not if that means that you
become parochial, inward looking and self-satisfied! It is your
strain of thinking that creates the “marathi manus” and “kannadiga
huduga” syndrome! What happened to integration and just being
Indian, and not “northie” or “madrasi”? For your information, even
20 years back (before the IT revolution happened and Bangalore was
flooded with people from North India), almost 60% of Bangalore’s
population consisted of people from outside the State. And while I
was growing up in Bangalore, this was a thing to be proud
of.

I’m sorry to go on and on – but some more diatribe (from
me) is required herre: “Loss of regional heritage (due to forcing
study of Hindi due to need for socialist control from 1st
paragraph) …” Hell-o! Why does learning Hindi mean a loss of
regional heritage. As far as I know, children have an immense
ability to learn several languages at the same time. My friend’s
son (who is 7, half Tamil, quarter Sindhi and quarter Tulu) speaks
English, Tamil, Hindi, Sindhi, Malayalam and Telugu and has no
problem in identifying which language to use depending on his
audience. While he might well be a language prodigy, he’s most
definitely not losing his pucca Tam-Brahm roots. His parents are
very good at reinforcing his Tamil roots at home. Maybe everyone
should try doing the same, instead of blaming a state policy.
Particularly when the rationale of the policy is to bring together
all Indians on a common platform, not to divide!